ALCATRAZ Locked Out: Mystery Drama Canceled After 1 Season

The finale opened up a world of interesting possibilities, but it was perhaps too late as FOX has canceled Alcatraz.

The time-travel series got off to a decent midseason start in the ratings game, but the solid premiere numbers kept dropping. The series has now been imprisoned by the network who opted to pick up fellow seriables Fringe and Touch instead.

It was long speculated that FOX would either go for one of the two Bad Robot stories on their books, in the end it looks like Fringe had more going for it.

Regrettably, this means that another network seriable drama ends unresolved on a cliffhanger. Will another network come in to save Rebecca and the 63’ers? Netflix perhaps? According to EW, it’s “unlikely” the show will be shopped elsewhere.

We’ll of course keep you updated on Alcatraz in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

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Maybe, just maybe, if Alcatraz kept a serial aproach it would have a chance. But it’s procedural elements got the “better” of it and it just wasn’t worth for anybody. It’s sad because it had promise. I guess that’s a lesson in favor of more seriable shows.
Well, at least Fringe got a chance to end its story. I feel sorry for Jorge Garcia though.

“Alcatraz” suffered from a failure to excite. Toss in a nasty procedural formula and Emerson’s grating attitude to deal with every week, and there just wasn’t enough to love.

I fell in love with Sydney while her head was still under water in the opening scene of “Truth Be Told”, but I just never felt that spark with Rebecca. Even when she flatlined in the finale, I had trouble getting past the “whatever” stage.

“This is sad…Very Sad only.”
There was a time when television executives had the patience to let a show find its audience. When art could breathe a little. When it wasn’t just a “sparkly” to attract an audience so they can show their commercials. “Alcatraz” had the beginnings of what could have been a really fantastic show. Since “Fringe” began, we heard how, in the first season, they were finding their footing, finding out what did and didn’t work. This show didn’t have to die. It looked like it was just beginning to gell–I really liked the cast. FOX management has done it again–killed a show out of sheer lack of patience. “Firefly” met the same fate. This kind of thing will come back at them in that a truly hard core set of fans (ala “Fringe”) simply will not form because, sooner or latter, nobody will trust them.

I think of a couple of shows that started out slowly: “Hill St. Blues”, “St. Elsewhere” that went on to become “legend” shows with a pile of Emy’s. Maybe network executive patience died with Brandon Tartikoff. I’m sure stunts like this make him turn over in his grave. Baaaaad Fox!! Shame on you!!

Because I like a story with a beginning, middle, and end. Seriables tend to float somewhere near the end of “middle”. I like resolution that usually doesn’t appear in a seriable. I think “Alcatraz” is the poster child here. A further illustration of why procedurals work better for me really is “Firefly”. The movie notwithstanding, the series actually did have an ending with a period at the end (Not a great one, but a period none-the-less.) “Twilight” is another procedural that illustrates my point. That show ended WAY before its time, but yet the door closing at the end allowed me to sketch in any end that I wanted. Again, a period. Again, a not great one but at least there was one.

Even one of the greatest seriables of all time, “Lost” had this immense time to correctly end–to put a period to the piece–and still that period was very hazy…very indistinct. Why, at the end of seriables do I feel kind of cheated–no matter how good the journey was to the end? Frankly, I feel a sense of forboding vis-a-vis “Fringe” in that I’ve spent an enormous amout of time and emotion on this series and I’m affraid of how this is going to end up. I pray that the writers will have enough respect for the audience, indeed, even be aware of the audience, so that we don’t end up with a “St. Elsewhere” ending–our universe being an imagined event, a glowing disk of swerling dust frozen in a marble.

man! they cancel V, they cancel terra nova, fringe is about to go into early retirement, now alcatraz? I mean holy cr**! everything I watch is getting cancelled and i don’t see anything I want to replace them with… I was counting on alcatraz (and terra nova and v before they died) to replace fringe in the long run for me, now all I have left in the realm of TV i enjoy to look forward to is 13 episodes of fringe and 10 of Game of thrones once per year…. what the hell fox? you cancel everything good… STOP IT!

when I see some of the new stuff coming out that’s just such a reach, I cant hep thinking why cancel something that’s already begun (V, TN, Traz) or already established itself (FRINGE) to start over with THIS…

This show had an interesting premise but lost me after only a couple episodes because it was highly procedural. In fact, I was surprised you even had it here on your serialized list (maybe it got better / more serialized as it went along ???). An occasional “monster of the week” episode is one thing, but this one couldn’t seem to get the serialized storyline going at all.

Jennifer, Alcatraz did start off rather procedural, though it also had a serialized mythology that would have been further explored in Season 2. Like you, I think the show would have been better served had it been more serialized from the outset.